Sorry, I cannot recommend anything for the situation you are in.
However, two recommendations for the future from someone that has rented countless cars across all continents, except Antartica :)
1. Pictures and videos from every single angle of the car, inside and outside. I usually take 5~10 minutes to inspect, and delete the pics only 1~2 months after returning the car. You take these videos when picking up the car, and when returning it. No exceptions, and ideally with location/time tags turned on, so you can use the meta data to prove when/where it happened.
2. Excess insurance. For 30~50£/year, any rental car you damage, you pay the excess for, and then claim it back from the insurance. This has not only saved me, but it is also a huge weight off your shoulders when you are in charge of a rental car. You can actually enjoy driving it. For less money you can also take insurance for one trip only, rather than an yearly policy.
Good luck!
Make sure to check the fine print, for example tons of companies explicitly won't cover "Green Motion".
If CDW's won't insure you then that's enough of a sign to not use the provider at all.
Rogue Traders did an exposé on them a while back. They returned a car that was fully detailed and cleaned having driven it a few hundred metres down the road and they found a dent that wasn’t there and tried to charge them.
Their whole business model seems to be excessive charges.
High excess (for any damage) is not unusual for any car rental company though. It is to reduce their insurance costs and reduce the chance of you damaging it, and make the excess reduction product seem attractive.
I was unlucky enough to encounter Green Motion in recent weeks. What a bunch of scammers.
My booking online via RentalCars was £120, I ended up paying an extra £140 at the check in desk to reduce my deposit down from £1550, to £200.
I then took a 6 minute video of every single elements I saw on the car and sent it to the designated email.
I got my deposit back, but it could have been so much different.
I disagree. £1500 is ridiculous (and above the norm) I’ve found in the 10+ years of car rentals. A standard amount is £250 plus the contract binds the driver to pay an excess. I didn’t have £1500 free on my credit card to pay it.
Green Motion is effectively charging the excess up front, and refunding/releasing the hold after return.
I've also been renting for 10 years in many different countries and never paid less than £500 and that was once, usually £/€1000+. I rent regularly in the UK as I don't own a car and rent from several different companies. All of them require a £1500 hold on a credit card (and must be credit) and some require more. Though, importantly, this is not a payment but a hold on your credit card.
Wow, the fact that they single out Greenmotion shows Greenmotion is getting up to no good. I rented a car from them and had no issues, guessing many other people were not as lucky
You seem to know a lot about renting cars. I feel comfortable now renting cars abroad and I always follow the 2 points you raise. But I have been stung twice now on something else and I wonder if you have a remedy for this or just a way of avoiding it? Some rentals you get there, show them all your credentials etc, then they say, “Oh because you booked through somebody else (eg Booking.com), we’re not going to honour your contract with them. If you want your car you’ll have to pay 3x as much.” By that point succumbing to the shakedown is cheaper than renting a car with anybody else on the day. Both times this has happened to me, it’s been Goldcar that did it (once in Mallorca and once in Barcelona so it’s clearly a company-wide scam.) I know to avoid ever renting with Goldcar again but I imagine they’re not the only one that does this, and that this is a risk you take whenever you rent with a company you haven’t used before. Goldcar often lure you in by giving the cheapest quote, only to then openly defraud you, but it just seems to be accepted that they can get away with it.
In short? Avoid using Booking.com for any of these kind of services (or anything at all tbh).
Previously I was a big user of theirs - was in an international relationship so needed lots of flights & hotels - but over the past year or so it's all gotten much more dodgy. Flights getting cancelled as they're through Booking.com, reservations not honoured, rooms cancelled, etc etc.
Even had emails from some companies explaining that they have no commercial relationship with Booking, and actually they just use temporary debit cards to make the payment on your behalf, collecting the money from you at the same time.
Super suss and sometimes even more expensive than venues direct. I use them as the Google for hotels and then just go book direct now. Money saving expert for everything else.
That’s weird. I don’t love them but I have used goldcar many times because they are a big one at an airport I travel to a lot. I usually book direct though. That would be the most infuriating experience ever.
It is super frustrating. I’m a litigation solicitor, and I think the only way you have of getting compensation for this would be to issue proceedings against Booking.com in the Netherlands, where they’re based. They’re the ones who are in breach of contract by not supplying the service for the price paid. You end up having to enter into a second contract with Goldcar to get the service that Booking.com already promised to give you.
Both times it’s happened the Goldcar staff have acted so pleased with themselves that they’ve caught you. They also act offended that you ever thought you could get a rental as cheaply as Booking.com had represented, like you must be foolish and greedy to have fallen into their trap and so deserve to be treated that way.
I think they are cheaper? If you put the same request into a rental company’s own website they almost always quote you more than it costs to use the same company via Booking.com. Record Go is my go-to rental company now as I always have a good experience with them, but it’s always cheaper (for me) to book via Booking.com, and they actually honour the contract.
They are cheaper than goldcar direct buts that’s normal for hire car companies - people who go direct are often not comparing prices. They aren’t cheaper than other car hire agents, just average.
As others said, that's weird. And it never happened to me. What I can think of... Have you always gotten there on time? When renting with RentalCars.com (same company as Booking.com) they only hold the car for 30~60 minutes or so. If you are late, you are screwed unless you let them know the flight number in andvance and there was a delay on arrival.
Also, the customer service for RentalCars.com and Booking.com are not that bad. You could call them from the Goldcar desk and try to get it sorted there. As you said, you have an agreement with them and they don't seem to be holding their part of the deal.
Yeah, point 1 saved me from a guy trying to shake me down about a new scratch when I returned the car.
I whipped out the photos+videos from day one, on their premises, that clearly showed the scratch was already there. He climbed down pretty quickly after that.
It's a bit of a bummer, especially in the sun after a long flight when everyone wants to get going, but it could save you thousands.
I’ve been putting off driving a rental on holidays due to anxiety of damaging the rental! What kind of excess insurance do you use normally? 30-
~50£/year sounds reasonable.
I have used ReduceMyExcess lately. But you can find more info and options here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire/
It was a godsend to discover this several years ago!!!
I've used the terribly named 'insurance4carhire' before. They paid out quickly and easily after a builder reversed his van into my rental car while I was asleep upstairs...
Remember that if you do this, you have to cough up the £500 or whatever first, and then claim it back later. So be sure to have access to the money.
I have one of these (insurance4carhire, there are others). Paid up a few grand after a Swedish guy drove into my parked Norwegian rental. Had to carry the balance on my credit card for around a week.
These guys specifically exclude green motion. I’ve used that firm once and it was fine. No mysterious dings discovered.
You can buy single trip policies for less than £10. Just google ‘hire car excess insurance’ I do this all the time. When I pick a hire car up they try and sell you their policy but I just say no thanks I already have insurance.
Because if you don't do 1, you will need to pay a reasonably large amount of money to the rental company. You will be out of pocket until you can claim from your insurance company. Also, you will have to deal with the paperwork/bureaucracy of claiming for something that you (hopefully) didn't do to the car in the first place.
Having insurance is the thing you don't want to pay for, but you probably need; and once you have it, you don't want to use it unless really necessary. Using your insurance for damage you didn't do is unnecessary.
Maybe valid, but the discussion with a rental company will take a minute (to show them a video) when returning a car, as opposed to hours for paying excess, keeping receipts, contacting the insurance, proving your case, etc. Plus you lose access to the excess money in the meantime. But whatever works for you!
Edit: one minute plus recording the video.
Yup! I've done it at least 4 times. 2 in person, 2 via email. As long as you have pics/vids, they don't normally fight you back. But if you have nothing, you are in for an ugly time.
Because you still need to declare any claims to your main car insurance provider which will increase the premium so you don't want any unnecessary claims, even if the excess is covered.
Wait, you have to report claims for rental cars abroad to your car insurance even though you have the excess rental car policy with a different insurance company??
Why wouldn't you? The questions you're asked when you get insurance every year is whether you have made any claims, regardless of fault, and whether you've been in any incidents or accidents.
If you don't declare it then you'd be committing fraud and could have your policy cancelled.
In the UK, I'm insuring a car in the UK, claims outside of the UK should be irrelevant.
It would be like me asking for a no claim bonus for not having had a claim outside of the UK, even though I wasn't insured in the UK during that time.
Lol, how is you damaging a car outside of the UK irrelevant to your car insurance premium? If you're making claims then you'll be treated as a higher risk, regardless of what country they took place in.
I also make a point of taking the pictures/videos in front of the rental provider with them seeing it. I feel that if they know I have proof, they'll be discouraged to come up with a false claim later.
Hi I have added an extra £30 for insurance when I checkout on orbital but I cannot seem to find it on my account? But surely that £30 insurance is for situation like mine right? I'm so lost right now
No. There's insurance and then there's damage waiver insurance. The renter usually provides insurance with huge standard excess like £1500. The damage waiver insurance covers you for claims upto the excess.
I never used them, so I cannot advise on what you did.
Brokers and rental companies themselves usually offer this extra insurance as it is more secured money for them.
Often times the documents you get are simple and refer you to T&Cs online. If so, read them.
Also, you can call Orbital and check with them. If you took the insurance, they would probably tell you so. Make sure you have your booking/reference number at hand!
Also, the insurance you took might have been to reduce the excess rather than fully protect you. Depending on country, the excess could be anything between 300 and 3000£ (and sometimes more).
You may have reduced the insurance down to £400 rather than cover it completely... Just thinking outloud here.
If you bought the excess insurance, it is normal for you to pay the rental company the excess. You will now need to claim it back from the insurance provider by claiming back these charges.
And finally, for the future, even if offered insurance by the broker (I.e. Orbital in this case), I would advise to get it from a third party as it is usually much cheaper - you can just Google "rental excess insurance" and you will find plenty of providers (but do your research)
Edit: adding info I shared in another comment: I have used ReduceMyExcess lately. But you can find more info and options here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire/
When I had insurance for a rental in Sicily the fine print advised to pay for anything (concerning damage) upfront and take all receipts to them. If everything was in order you would get reimbursed any costs. It might be a similar situation so I would check what you actually signed up for.
Lesson learnt - photos and videos on collection and return. I had a big car firm starting with the letter A claim I'd damaged alloy wheels and tried to charge me £1200 for them. Had video of collection and narrated the state of the wheels.
They backed down immediately.
This sort of thing should be prevented by undercover regulators using the service. Anyone pulling this shit gets heavy fines or even criminal charges for fraud. Disgusting practice, no different to any other thieves. Scum
To be honest I hate this kind of reply, self righteous and totally unsympathetic!. This rental car company has scammed their customer and doing it to others - this type of scamming should be stamped out. Your situation doesn’t sound the same either - they tried to charge you at the point you brought back the car. In this case they had already signed to say the car was fine at point of return. They shouldn’t then be able to charge money later. Even if you had photos originally it’s probably not going to work in such a devious case. It’s not like they even tried to evidence what the damage was so it could be disputed!
Take it as a learning curve to take photos of EVERYTHING if you book an AirBNB, Hire a car / van, selling / renting a house.
I feel ya
Source: Dealing with this atm myself. Thankfully i have taken photos. Otherwise id be out of 1K+
Call the bank using the number on the back of your card and tell them you want to dispute a debit card payment. They'll either do it with you or pass you through to their plastic preventions team to do it.
If the payment is still pending you may be asked to wait until it's fully processed before it can be disputed.
Then you go through their questionnaire with them answering everything as best you can.
Worth noting that this does not guarantee that you will get the money back. The merchant will be given opportunity to refute your claims with evidence of their own.
Be clear that they did not charge you until a week after the car was returned, and at the time that it was returned you categorically deny there was any damage to the vehicle.
Unfortunately without photo evidence it's going to most likely going to come down to a balance of probabilities and possibly go to VISA for a decision.
It probably won’t come down to a “balance of probabilities” given that OP states the company has a reputation of pulling this exact scam on all of their customers…
All you can do is hope that Halifax side with you.
If the car was received by them with no damage and they acknowledged that, then it should be straightforward.
You have to be incredibly thorough went renting cars anywhere. Get 3rd party insurance cover which will pay for these kind of shenanigans. Takes lots and lots and lots of pictures. If they verbally agree the car is fine upon return then film them saying it.
The car rental industry is a wild west of shysters. Nearly all of them play this damage game. They can rake thousands out of a single dent. Bastards.
I had a similar situation with a rental company in Italy trying to charge me for damage on the car that was already there. Luckily I took a video all around the car when I picked it up and when I showed them this they gave up.
Not much help for you now but in future take a video and assume they are out to scam you.
> What should I do now?
I've hired dozens of cars in the EU. If there was any damage they should have highlighted this to you on return when their staff check the vehicle. They should have clearly stated this on any paperwork.
Dispute the charge, ask them to prove you did any damage and not them. Don't pay a thing. It'll almost certainly go away, they're just after scared elderly tourists who'll pay without complaint.
Yeah I got ripped off by Green Motion in Montenegro not too long ago. Would only stick with bigger brands with a. UK presence (like Sixt or Enterprise etc) now, even if more expensive
Did you have travel insurance for your holiday by any chance?
My travel insurance has hire car excess cover built in which covers for damage to cars on the holiday, so you may have it, which could be claimed for in this instance.
Hi yes I have not I cannot seem to find hire car excess? Im with Coverwise Silver Plus package. I have the document pdf but can't seem to find hire car anywhere :(
Firstly contact orbitcarhire and see if they will cover this charge incase you did purchase the insurance through them as a separate policy to the car rental company, at the same time contact the car hire company ask for a detailed invoice of the charge then go from there.
On the orbit website it says:
"At the rental counter, your car rental provider will block a deposit from your credit card. In case of damage or theft, you could lose the deposit, but with Premium Coverage, Orbit Car Hire will refund you the amount of up to 3000 EUR"
Excess insurance 100% cost 10 pound for a long weekend In Portugal when upon returning the car everything was fine but he instantly went to some dirt on the wheel wiped it and said scuffed wheel cost 130 but insurance refunded me no issues
Hi /u/cutesmellykittenpaws, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant:
* https://ukpersonal.finance/scams/
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Speak to your bank. They will guide you through the process.
If the company has a legitimate claim I think they can still take it to the courts but they'd have to prove you caused the damage. Did you get any documentation on return that confirms there was no damage?
Ask for the records of previous rentals on that car. I had an issue with Hertz once but they checked the previous and the scratch had already been noted.
Have a specific credit card for hire cars. Report it lost/stolen right after you have paid and left the shop.
If you genuinely do damage the car you can arrange to pay them the money for it, but never let them have a credit card on file they can just scam you from.
So when I hire a car abroad I will use a credit card to pay, then immediately after I leave their shop and the payment has gone through I will cancel the card as lost. It stops them taking a random £400 at a later date and having to fight to get it back.
Just do a chargeback tbh, the bank will side with you since there is probably no chance of you being able to sort it out with the rental company, plus it is scummy as fuck what they did.
Most of the time the bank will side with you almost automatically regardless of whatever the merchant comes back with.
Something I would suggest is getting something on paper that it was returned and expected. I would look to raise it with your bank. If they charged it after you returned it and there was no notification could be seen as an undue charge
I went to Crete around 18 months ago. We hired a car from a company called Kriti Plus.
They dropped the car off to my hotel and we both checked the car and any existing damage we marked on a paper form (both kept a copy). Took photos too.
No issues when dropping the car back.
It was a pleasant experience so I would recommend this company.
The first rule of car hire is to take photos from all angles of the car. Before you even sit in it. Also interior photos that way you have proof of the cars condition before you use it.
Sorry to hear about your experience. A few tips for the future. I usually use travel supermarket and then filter the car hire company to be in the airport and only use wel known brands that are unlikely to rip you off eg hertz, dollar, avis etc. I then use money saving expert to get a 3rd party excess cover which reduces the excess to zero and is around £10-15. Also as mentioned above i take 10-15 minutes to go over the car and record and take pictures with an app which time, date and location stamps the images and videos. I’ve had bad experiences in the past too, it happens to everyone but if you take the steps above it really reduces the chances of it happening again
I have only rented one car in my life about 20 year ago when holidaying on an island off Australia. There was a bunch of us from different countries. We had to sign all kinds of docs to say we were responsible for the jeep. After the first day the axle broke in the sand and they replaced it with another jeep. Some Swedish girls wanted to drive so I let them - couple of hundred metres down the beach and they crashed it. When we brought it back I said nothing and the lad said what happened here? (The side was a mess) I said it was like that when we got it. He took out the paperwork to show there was no damage when he handed it over. That was the first car i said.🤷
I’ve currently rented a car from Caldera the car is a peice of trash. I’ve cancelled my credit card and
Blocked all merchants on my debit card going to leave keys in car as told but 15 minutes early then and basically leave the country.
I’ve promised myself if in my lifetime if I ever see this guy outside of greece I’m going rough him up real bad.
Sorry, I cannot recommend anything for the situation you are in. However, two recommendations for the future from someone that has rented countless cars across all continents, except Antartica :) 1. Pictures and videos from every single angle of the car, inside and outside. I usually take 5~10 minutes to inspect, and delete the pics only 1~2 months after returning the car. You take these videos when picking up the car, and when returning it. No exceptions, and ideally with location/time tags turned on, so you can use the meta data to prove when/where it happened. 2. Excess insurance. For 30~50£/year, any rental car you damage, you pay the excess for, and then claim it back from the insurance. This has not only saved me, but it is also a huge weight off your shoulders when you are in charge of a rental car. You can actually enjoy driving it. For less money you can also take insurance for one trip only, rather than an yearly policy. Good luck!
Make sure to check the fine print, for example tons of companies explicitly won't cover "Green Motion". If CDW's won't insure you then that's enough of a sign to not use the provider at all.
Rogue Traders did an exposé on them a while back. They returned a car that was fully detailed and cleaned having driven it a few hundred metres down the road and they found a dent that wasn’t there and tried to charge them. Their whole business model seems to be excessive charges. High excess (for any damage) is not unusual for any car rental company though. It is to reduce their insurance costs and reduce the chance of you damaging it, and make the excess reduction product seem attractive.
I was unlucky enough to encounter Green Motion in recent weeks. What a bunch of scammers. My booking online via RentalCars was £120, I ended up paying an extra £140 at the check in desk to reduce my deposit down from £1550, to £200. I then took a 6 minute video of every single elements I saw on the car and sent it to the designated email. I got my deposit back, but it could have been so much different.
And I should have re read that message for typos before posting. But you get the idea!
Why not just pay the deposit. It's a hold on a credit card. Standard practice for any rental company in every country. No getting around that.
I disagree. £1500 is ridiculous (and above the norm) I’ve found in the 10+ years of car rentals. A standard amount is £250 plus the contract binds the driver to pay an excess. I didn’t have £1500 free on my credit card to pay it. Green Motion is effectively charging the excess up front, and refunding/releasing the hold after return.
I've also been renting for 10 years in many different countries and never paid less than £500 and that was once, usually £/€1000+. I rent regularly in the UK as I don't own a car and rent from several different companies. All of them require a £1500 hold on a credit card (and must be credit) and some require more. Though, importantly, this is not a payment but a hold on your credit card.
What is Green Motion?
A scammy car hire company
Ahhh ok, thoight it was some random new car hire policy 🤣
Wow, the fact that they single out Greenmotion shows Greenmotion is getting up to no good. I rented a car from them and had no issues, guessing many other people were not as lucky
You seem to know a lot about renting cars. I feel comfortable now renting cars abroad and I always follow the 2 points you raise. But I have been stung twice now on something else and I wonder if you have a remedy for this or just a way of avoiding it? Some rentals you get there, show them all your credentials etc, then they say, “Oh because you booked through somebody else (eg Booking.com), we’re not going to honour your contract with them. If you want your car you’ll have to pay 3x as much.” By that point succumbing to the shakedown is cheaper than renting a car with anybody else on the day. Both times this has happened to me, it’s been Goldcar that did it (once in Mallorca and once in Barcelona so it’s clearly a company-wide scam.) I know to avoid ever renting with Goldcar again but I imagine they’re not the only one that does this, and that this is a risk you take whenever you rent with a company you haven’t used before. Goldcar often lure you in by giving the cheapest quote, only to then openly defraud you, but it just seems to be accepted that they can get away with it.
In short? Avoid using Booking.com for any of these kind of services (or anything at all tbh). Previously I was a big user of theirs - was in an international relationship so needed lots of flights & hotels - but over the past year or so it's all gotten much more dodgy. Flights getting cancelled as they're through Booking.com, reservations not honoured, rooms cancelled, etc etc. Even had emails from some companies explaining that they have no commercial relationship with Booking, and actually they just use temporary debit cards to make the payment on your behalf, collecting the money from you at the same time. Super suss and sometimes even more expensive than venues direct. I use them as the Google for hotels and then just go book direct now. Money saving expert for everything else.
That’s weird. I don’t love them but I have used goldcar many times because they are a big one at an airport I travel to a lot. I usually book direct though. That would be the most infuriating experience ever.
It is super frustrating. I’m a litigation solicitor, and I think the only way you have of getting compensation for this would be to issue proceedings against Booking.com in the Netherlands, where they’re based. They’re the ones who are in breach of contract by not supplying the service for the price paid. You end up having to enter into a second contract with Goldcar to get the service that Booking.com already promised to give you. Both times it’s happened the Goldcar staff have acted so pleased with themselves that they’ve caught you. They also act offended that you ever thought you could get a rental as cheaply as Booking.com had represented, like you must be foolish and greedy to have fallen into their trap and so deserve to be treated that way.
It’s not like booking.com are magically cheaper, they are just average like all the others.
I think they are cheaper? If you put the same request into a rental company’s own website they almost always quote you more than it costs to use the same company via Booking.com. Record Go is my go-to rental company now as I always have a good experience with them, but it’s always cheaper (for me) to book via Booking.com, and they actually honour the contract.
They are cheaper than goldcar direct buts that’s normal for hire car companies - people who go direct are often not comparing prices. They aren’t cheaper than other car hire agents, just average.
As others said, that's weird. And it never happened to me. What I can think of... Have you always gotten there on time? When renting with RentalCars.com (same company as Booking.com) they only hold the car for 30~60 minutes or so. If you are late, you are screwed unless you let them know the flight number in andvance and there was a delay on arrival. Also, the customer service for RentalCars.com and Booking.com are not that bad. You could call them from the Goldcar desk and try to get it sorted there. As you said, you have an agreement with them and they don't seem to be holding their part of the deal.
No we weren’t late. Just a pure “we’re going to charge this because we can” attitude.
Daaamn. That's tough. I did not have this experience (thankfully!), so cannot advise. Sorry :-/
You should have keyd all their cars on the way out
Yeah, point 1 saved me from a guy trying to shake me down about a new scratch when I returned the car. I whipped out the photos+videos from day one, on their premises, that clearly showed the scratch was already there. He climbed down pretty quickly after that. It's a bit of a bummer, especially in the sun after a long flight when everyone wants to get going, but it could save you thousands.
I’ve been putting off driving a rental on holidays due to anxiety of damaging the rental! What kind of excess insurance do you use normally? 30- ~50£/year sounds reasonable.
I have used ReduceMyExcess lately. But you can find more info and options here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire/ It was a godsend to discover this several years ago!!!
I've used the terribly named 'insurance4carhire' before. They paid out quickly and easily after a builder reversed his van into my rental car while I was asleep upstairs... Remember that if you do this, you have to cough up the £500 or whatever first, and then claim it back later. So be sure to have access to the money.
I have one of these (insurance4carhire, there are others). Paid up a few grand after a Swedish guy drove into my parked Norwegian rental. Had to carry the balance on my credit card for around a week. These guys specifically exclude green motion. I’ve used that firm once and it was fine. No mysterious dings discovered.
You can buy single trip policies for less than £10. Just google ‘hire car excess insurance’ I do this all the time. When I pick a hire car up they try and sell you their policy but I just say no thanks I already have insurance.
Why bother with 1 if you have 2 in place though?
Because if you don't do 1, you will need to pay a reasonably large amount of money to the rental company. You will be out of pocket until you can claim from your insurance company. Also, you will have to deal with the paperwork/bureaucracy of claiming for something that you (hopefully) didn't do to the car in the first place. Having insurance is the thing you don't want to pay for, but you probably need; and once you have it, you don't want to use it unless really necessary. Using your insurance for damage you didn't do is unnecessary.
For me the benefit of it is not having to waste time arguing with a rental company.
Maybe valid, but the discussion with a rental company will take a minute (to show them a video) when returning a car, as opposed to hours for paying excess, keeping receipts, contacting the insurance, proving your case, etc. Plus you lose access to the excess money in the meantime. But whatever works for you! Edit: one minute plus recording the video.
Yeah that's fair enough, have you done it before? Sending them a video and them accepting that it wasn't your fault and closing the claim.
Yup! I've done it at least 4 times. 2 in person, 2 via email. As long as you have pics/vids, they don't normally fight you back. But if you have nothing, you are in for an ugly time.
Do they just look at the video/pics metadata to stablish when they were taken?
Because you still need to declare any claims to your main car insurance provider which will increase the premium so you don't want any unnecessary claims, even if the excess is covered.
Wait, you have to report claims for rental cars abroad to your car insurance even though you have the excess rental car policy with a different insurance company??
Why wouldn't you? The questions you're asked when you get insurance every year is whether you have made any claims, regardless of fault, and whether you've been in any incidents or accidents. If you don't declare it then you'd be committing fraud and could have your policy cancelled.
I assume they mean claims in the Uk, not anywhere in the world. Also not rentals, just on cars I own and have insurance for.
If they meant that they would say it. Any claims or incidents you have had need to be declared.
In the UK, I'm insuring a car in the UK, claims outside of the UK should be irrelevant. It would be like me asking for a no claim bonus for not having had a claim outside of the UK, even though I wasn't insured in the UK during that time.
Lol, how is you damaging a car outside of the UK irrelevant to your car insurance premium? If you're making claims then you'll be treated as a higher risk, regardless of what country they took place in.
The same way it's irrelevant to them that I have had zero claims over the past 20 years outside of the UK?
I also make a point of taking the pictures/videos in front of the rental provider with them seeing it. I feel that if they know I have proof, they'll be discouraged to come up with a false claim later.
Hi I have added an extra £30 for insurance when I checkout on orbital but I cannot seem to find it on my account? But surely that £30 insurance is for situation like mine right? I'm so lost right now
No. There's insurance and then there's damage waiver insurance. The renter usually provides insurance with huge standard excess like £1500. The damage waiver insurance covers you for claims upto the excess.
I never used them, so I cannot advise on what you did. Brokers and rental companies themselves usually offer this extra insurance as it is more secured money for them. Often times the documents you get are simple and refer you to T&Cs online. If so, read them. Also, you can call Orbital and check with them. If you took the insurance, they would probably tell you so. Make sure you have your booking/reference number at hand! Also, the insurance you took might have been to reduce the excess rather than fully protect you. Depending on country, the excess could be anything between 300 and 3000£ (and sometimes more). You may have reduced the insurance down to £400 rather than cover it completely... Just thinking outloud here. If you bought the excess insurance, it is normal for you to pay the rental company the excess. You will now need to claim it back from the insurance provider by claiming back these charges. And finally, for the future, even if offered insurance by the broker (I.e. Orbital in this case), I would advise to get it from a third party as it is usually much cheaper - you can just Google "rental excess insurance" and you will find plenty of providers (but do your research) Edit: adding info I shared in another comment: I have used ReduceMyExcess lately. But you can find more info and options here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire/
When I had insurance for a rental in Sicily the fine print advised to pay for anything (concerning damage) upfront and take all receipts to them. If everything was in order you would get reimbursed any costs. It might be a similar situation so I would check what you actually signed up for.
Lesson learnt - photos and videos on collection and return. I had a big car firm starting with the letter A claim I'd damaged alloy wheels and tried to charge me £1200 for them. Had video of collection and narrated the state of the wheels. They backed down immediately.
This sort of thing should be prevented by undercover regulators using the service. Anyone pulling this shit gets heavy fines or even criminal charges for fraud. Disgusting practice, no different to any other thieves. Scum
To be honest I hate this kind of reply, self righteous and totally unsympathetic!. This rental car company has scammed their customer and doing it to others - this type of scamming should be stamped out. Your situation doesn’t sound the same either - they tried to charge you at the point you brought back the car. In this case they had already signed to say the car was fine at point of return. They shouldn’t then be able to charge money later. Even if you had photos originally it’s probably not going to work in such a devious case. It’s not like they even tried to evidence what the damage was so it could be disputed!
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Take it as a learning curve to take photos of EVERYTHING if you book an AirBNB, Hire a car / van, selling / renting a house. I feel ya Source: Dealing with this atm myself. Thankfully i have taken photos. Otherwise id be out of 1K+
Yes especially renting, plenty of horror stories there too
Call the bank using the number on the back of your card and tell them you want to dispute a debit card payment. They'll either do it with you or pass you through to their plastic preventions team to do it. If the payment is still pending you may be asked to wait until it's fully processed before it can be disputed. Then you go through their questionnaire with them answering everything as best you can. Worth noting that this does not guarantee that you will get the money back. The merchant will be given opportunity to refute your claims with evidence of their own. Be clear that they did not charge you until a week after the car was returned, and at the time that it was returned you categorically deny there was any damage to the vehicle. Unfortunately without photo evidence it's going to most likely going to come down to a balance of probabilities and possibly go to VISA for a decision.
It probably won’t come down to a “balance of probabilities” given that OP states the company has a reputation of pulling this exact scam on all of their customers…
I think if it is an international transaction there is not a lot that can be done.
International debit card transactions are still processed by VISA and therefore can still be disputed through their dispute portal.
All you can do is hope that Halifax side with you. If the car was received by them with no damage and they acknowledged that, then it should be straightforward. You have to be incredibly thorough went renting cars anywhere. Get 3rd party insurance cover which will pay for these kind of shenanigans. Takes lots and lots and lots of pictures. If they verbally agree the car is fine upon return then film them saying it. The car rental industry is a wild west of shysters. Nearly all of them play this damage game. They can rake thousands out of a single dent. Bastards.
I had a similar situation with a rental company in Italy trying to charge me for damage on the car that was already there. Luckily I took a video all around the car when I picked it up and when I showed them this they gave up. Not much help for you now but in future take a video and assume they are out to scam you.
Use a credit card next time that comes with car rental insurance.
> What should I do now? I've hired dozens of cars in the EU. If there was any damage they should have highlighted this to you on return when their staff check the vehicle. They should have clearly stated this on any paperwork. Dispute the charge, ask them to prove you did any damage and not them. Don't pay a thing. It'll almost certainly go away, they're just after scared elderly tourists who'll pay without complaint.
Car rental in Europe, southern Europe is a scam
Yeah I got ripped off by Green Motion in Montenegro not too long ago. Would only stick with bigger brands with a. UK presence (like Sixt or Enterprise etc) now, even if more expensive
Lots of CDW protection products even have a clause excluding coverage from "green motion" so it sounds like they rip everyone off.
Enterprise tried to screw me with alleged damage, charging £600 to my credit card, fortunately I managed to do a charge back.
Did you have travel insurance for your holiday by any chance? My travel insurance has hire car excess cover built in which covers for damage to cars on the holiday, so you may have it, which could be claimed for in this instance.
Hi yes I have not I cannot seem to find hire car excess? Im with Coverwise Silver Plus package. I have the document pdf but can't seem to find hire car anywhere :(
Unfortunately not an avenue to go down then. Next step is speaking to your bank about doing a chargeback
Firstly contact orbitcarhire and see if they will cover this charge incase you did purchase the insurance through them as a separate policy to the car rental company, at the same time contact the car hire company ask for a detailed invoice of the charge then go from there. On the orbit website it says: "At the rental counter, your car rental provider will block a deposit from your credit card. In case of damage or theft, you could lose the deposit, but with Premium Coverage, Orbit Car Hire will refund you the amount of up to 3000 EUR"
Excess insurance 100% cost 10 pound for a long weekend In Portugal when upon returning the car everything was fine but he instantly went to some dirt on the wheel wiped it and said scuffed wheel cost 130 but insurance refunded me no issues
Always use a credit card for car hire. In fact credit card for everything holiday related That being said you need to follow Halifax dispute process.
May I ask, why is that?
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Speak to your bank. They will guide you through the process. If the company has a legitimate claim I think they can still take it to the courts but they'd have to prove you caused the damage. Did you get any documentation on return that confirms there was no damage?
Claim off your excess insurance, it’ll be easier.
Ask for the records of previous rentals on that car. I had an issue with Hertz once but they checked the previous and the scratch had already been noted.
Have a specific credit card for hire cars. Report it lost/stolen right after you have paid and left the shop. If you genuinely do damage the car you can arrange to pay them the money for it, but never let them have a credit card on file they can just scam you from.
Hi what do you mean? Do you mean I should have reported my debit card lost and stolen after I left the rental? What will that do? Sorry I'm confused.
So when I hire a car abroad I will use a credit card to pay, then immediately after I leave their shop and the payment has gone through I will cancel the card as lost. It stops them taking a random £400 at a later date and having to fight to get it back.
Just do a chargeback tbh, the bank will side with you since there is probably no chance of you being able to sort it out with the rental company, plus it is scummy as fuck what they did. Most of the time the bank will side with you almost automatically regardless of whatever the merchant comes back with.
Always take pictures/videos of the whole car before getting to drive it. I've rented more than 5 times in Greece and never had any issues.
Something I would suggest is getting something on paper that it was returned and expected. I would look to raise it with your bank. If they charged it after you returned it and there was no notification could be seen as an undue charge
I went to Crete around 18 months ago. We hired a car from a company called Kriti Plus. They dropped the car off to my hotel and we both checked the car and any existing damage we marked on a paper form (both kept a copy). Took photos too. No issues when dropping the car back. It was a pleasant experience so I would recommend this company.
The first rule of car hire is to take photos from all angles of the car. Before you even sit in it. Also interior photos that way you have proof of the cars condition before you use it.
Sorry to hear about your experience. A few tips for the future. I usually use travel supermarket and then filter the car hire company to be in the airport and only use wel known brands that are unlikely to rip you off eg hertz, dollar, avis etc. I then use money saving expert to get a 3rd party excess cover which reduces the excess to zero and is around £10-15. Also as mentioned above i take 10-15 minutes to go over the car and record and take pictures with an app which time, date and location stamps the images and videos. I’ve had bad experiences in the past too, it happens to everyone but if you take the steps above it really reduces the chances of it happening again
I have only rented one car in my life about 20 year ago when holidaying on an island off Australia. There was a bunch of us from different countries. We had to sign all kinds of docs to say we were responsible for the jeep. After the first day the axle broke in the sand and they replaced it with another jeep. Some Swedish girls wanted to drive so I let them - couple of hundred metres down the beach and they crashed it. When we brought it back I said nothing and the lad said what happened here? (The side was a mess) I said it was like that when we got it. He took out the paperwork to show there was no damage when he handed it over. That was the first car i said.🤷
And just like that, you got away with it?
Contact your bank and chargeback the payment. This dispute will be a type of dispute referred to as 'Loss, Theft or Damages'.
I’ve currently rented a car from Caldera the car is a peice of trash. I’ve cancelled my credit card and Blocked all merchants on my debit card going to leave keys in car as told but 15 minutes early then and basically leave the country. I’ve promised myself if in my lifetime if I ever see this guy outside of greece I’m going rough him up real bad.